Redding man sentenced to 12 years in prison for ID theft

A 35-year-old Redding man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading no contest to 11 counts of identity theft.

Darrell Michael Bolefahr, who has been convicted previously of forgery, identity theft and possession of a controlled substance, was arrested earlier this summer after a search warrant was served at his Keswick Dam Road home, sheriff's deputies have said.

Detectives said they found Bolefahr to be in possession of personal information belonging to about 40 people, including hundreds of documents, including printed transaction records, credit cards and checks from fraudulent opened accounts, forged checks and stolen property.

The sheriff's investigation began after an Anderson woman reported that two bill payment checks she had written and mailed had been stolen from her rural Balls Ferry Road mailbox.

The checks had been altered with a different name and amount and then deposited into a fraudulent bank account, detectives have said.

The altered name was later found to be an additional identify theft victim, detectives said, adding that the man's name was the connection that led detectives to Bolefahr's residence.

That ID theft victim had been briefly employed by a business belonging to Robbie and Lisa Cattanach, who were burglary victims in January.

Bolefarh lived next to the Cattanach residence, detectives said.

Soon thereafter, detectives said, the couple's personal information was used to open fraudulent bank accounts, cell phone accounts and make unauthorized charges on their stolen credit cards.